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"Alternatif" newspaper accused of violating press law, shut down for one month

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(Antenna-TR/IFEX) - The Istanbul High Criminal Court No. 9 has seized copies of "Alternatif" newspaper and has suspended its publication for one month. The paper, which began publishing in May 2008, is accused of violating Article 25/2 of the Press Law for "publishing the statements of the PKK/KONGRA-GEL organisation".

The court deemed that two of the reports published in the newspaper - a statement by PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) leader Abdullah Öcalan entitled, "They can talk with DTP for a solution", and a statement by leading member Murat Karayilan entitled, "Defend your mother tongue" - were offensive. Öcalan was reported to have said that he had been given disciplinary punishments for inciting people with his messages, and he had warned people against cultural genocide. Karayilan was quoted as saying that he supported those who protested "the ban on the use of the mother tongue" (Kurdish) and the "policies of cultural genocide."

Following the seizure of "Alternatif" newspaper, another periodical, the monthly "Kizillasan Özgür Halk", was closed down for a month by the Istanbul High Criminal Court on the grounds of "making propaganda for an illegal organisation".

After already cracking down on freedom of information in recent years, President Erdoğan has taken advantage of the abortive coup d’état and the state of emergency in effect since 20 July to silence many more of his media critics, not only Gülen movement media and journalists but also, to a lesser extent, Kurdish, secularist and left-wing media.

Authorities prosecuted a number of prominent journalists on terrorism-related charges, including the editor in chief and the Ankara bureau chief of the Cumhuriyet daily, who were arrested in connection with the paper’s coverage of alleged weapons shipments to Syria by Turkish intelligence services.

The report is a frank assessment of the recent regime of online censorship and mass surveillance against a backdrop of longstanding, serious abuses of the judicial process and attacks on freedom of expression by Turkish authorities.

The Turkish authorities severely restricted the right to freedom of expression of journalists and writers during and after the Gezi Park protests in 2013, English PEN and PEN International said in their joint report.

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